It's always been characters over story for me. If I don't like the cast, why should I care if they win or whatever. Like take Tales of Legendia. People hate it, I get it. The combat is meh and the story is weak, especially for a Tales game. But six of the main eight are fantastic. They each got a character arc in the second half to flesh them out. Even made Jay somewhat likable.

Then there's 4 Heroes of Light. The main cast are a bunch of assholes and I didn't get very far.